Originally shared by Jasper Janssen
Earlier today I met Daniel De Bruin (there’s five of them on G+, I’ll check later if one appears to be the right one) in the ExBunker, on its opening day. The bunker was caused to be built on the city side edge of the aforementioned local park by the oberleutnant der geheime feldpolizei herr Richard Becker, and he put his headquarters there. after the war it became more or less a garden shed.
Today was its official opening day in its new life, as an art exposition room. Daniel has been inspired by 3D printers and the maker movement, and has built a completely analog 3D printer (pictured). The drive mechanism is obviously inspired by eighteenth century click tower clicks, in particular the striking mechanisms: a raised weight, and some rotating wings that provide a slowing force via air resistance. The rotating motion is then transferred to a rotating platform, which moves underneath a large syringe which squeezes out a wall filler material. Each rotation, the platform (held up by a screw) moves down a bit.
The machine is “programmed” by inserting a bent piece of wire, which pushes the platform to one side or the other as it moves down, causing the radius of the circle to change. There is apparently some Magic linkage which I didn’t quite catch which makes sure the contraption moves at constant linear velocity rather than constant angular velocity – otherwise wall thickness of the resulting vase-like shapes would be inversely proportional to the radius and that would be bad.
